In the News (Mon 3 Aug 15)

Kotoku Shusui (November 4, 1871 - January 24, 1911) was a socialist and anarchist who played a leading role in introducing anarchism to Japan in the early 20th century, particularly by translating the works of contemporary European and Russian anarchists, such as Peter Kropotkin, into Japanese.

Kotoku moved from his birthplace, the town of Nakamura[?] in the Kochi prefecture, to Tokyo in his mid-teens and became a journalist there in 1893.

Kotoku was hung along with twelve others on 24th January, 1911, even though only four of the hundreds arrested were found to be involved in a planned attempt on the Emperor's life, and Kotoku wasn't one of them.

Japan's popular image is of a hierarchical and regimented society, while the Japanese are widely regarded as unswervingly loyal servants of the company and the state.

Even within Japan there are many Japanese who are unaware of the anarchist movement's existence, of the martyrs who have died for the cause, and of the sustained struggle that has been fought against the capitalist state and the inhumanity it has perpetrated over the years.

That she should have discovered the anarchist movement only after leaving Japan is a good illustration of the extent to which the existence of Japanese anarchism has been omitted from the officially sponsored historical record, filtered out of the education curriculum and ignored by the mass media.

The seas which surround Japan are the Pacific Ocean on the east, the Sea of Okhotsk on the North, the Sea of Japan on the west, and the China Sea on the south.

Fifteen are appointed by the emperor, the remaining twenty-five by the minister at the nomination of the former.

On 12 Sept., 1885, a letter written from Leo XIII to the Emperor of Japan was received with great honour, and on 18 December of the same year, a representative of the emperor assisted respectfully at the ceremony of the funeral service for Alphonso XII, King of Spain.

A legend says that its origins lie in the days of Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century, when the Buddhist priest Nichiren was supposed to have offered the sun disc flag to the Emperor of Japan, who was considered a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu....

EmperorThe Emperor of Japan (天皇, tennō) is Japan's titular head of state and the head of the Japanese imperial family.

Akihito is the eldest son and the fifth child of the Emperor Showa (Hirohito) and the Empress Kojun (Nagako).

Kotoku Shusui (November 4 or September 23, 1871 - January 24, 1911) was a socialist and anarchist who played a leading role in introducing anarchism to Japan in the early 20th century, particularly by translating the works of contemporary European and Russian anarchists, such as Peter Kropotkin, into Japanese.

Kotoku moved from his birthplace, the town of Nakamura in the Kochi prefecture, to Tokyo in his mid-teens and became a journalist there in 1893.

Kotoku was hung along with twelve others on 24th January, 1911, even though only four of the hundreds arrested were found to be involved in a planned attempt on the Emperor's life, and Kotoku wasn't one of them.

Japan, 5001000 A.D. | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-29)

While this is the traditional account of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, in actuality the Japanese court probably learned of the religion earlier from Korean and Chinese traders and immigrants.

Until 710, the capital city is usually moved after the death of the reigning emperor.

The practice of marrying their daughters to emperors and serving as regents to the resulting sons, who are frequently enthroned at a young age, forms the basis of Fujiwara influence.

www.metmuseum.org /toah/ht/06/eaj/ht06eaj.htm (1249 words)

Japanese History | History of Japan :: Japan Visitor(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-29)

In Japan in 587AD the Soga clan was victorious in a civil war defeating its rivals the Mononobe and Nakatomi clan and heralding the formal acceptance of Buddhism which it had overseen the introduction of from the mainland.

EmperorKotoku ascended the throne in 654 and, free of Soga influence, moved the Court out of Soga territory to Naniwa (present day Osaka).

The first Heian Emperor Kammu was probably the most powerful of any Emperor before or since, but after his death in 806 the Fujiwara increased in political power by providing the imperial house with Fujiwara concubines and imperial consorts, thus forging marriage bonds that gave Fujiwara nobles access to the highest Court administrative positions.

In Japan, however, Daikoku-ten is one of Japan's Seven Lucky Gods and venerated as the luck-bringing protector of the earth, farming and farmers, commerce, and overall good fortune.

Another similar theory is that Inari was syncretized with "Dakini-ten." In Japan, Dakini-ten are the various manifestations of Dakini, and were generally associated with Daikoku-ten (Mahakala), who is considered the Hindu god of the Five Cereals (later becomes god of Buddhism, and today is one of Japan's Seven Lucky Gods).

And in Japan, the fox spirit or kitsune arrived from China during the T'ang Dyansty (there is even a Japanese legend explaining that it flew over), where it joined the native tanuki (a shape-changing badger), and became an integral part of the national folklore.

Emperor Yōmei (用明天皇) (died (Click link for more info and facts about 587) 587) was the 31st (Click link for more info and facts about imperial ruler) imperial ruler of (A constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building) Japan.

He was the fourth son of the Emperor (Click link for more info and facts about Kimmei) Kimmei by Kitashihime, a (Click link for more info and facts about Soga) Soga woman and daughter of Soga no Iname.

Yomei was in favor of (The teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth) Buddhism.

He was a descendant of the Emperor (Click link for more info and facts about Bidatsu) Bidatsu.

He had at least three consorts including his Empress, Hashihito no Himemiko (Princess Hashihito), the daughter of the Emperor (Click link for more info and facts about Jomei) Jomei and his sister Kogyoku.

In 653 Kotoku sent an embassy to (Click link for more info and facts about Sui dynasty) Sui dynasty, but not all ships could reach China because of wrecking.

Japan, however, was still largely a Neolithic culture; it would take centuries for the ideal of the Chinese style emperor to take root.

In the reign of the Emperor who ruled the world in the Palace of Wosada 8, Soga no Mumako no Sukune, influenced by reverence for his deceased father, continued to prize highly the doctrines of Buddha.

www.wsu.edu:8080 /~dee/ANCJAPAN/TAIKA.HTM (4329 words)

Real Samurai History of Japan(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-29)

Monks-rulers, and the warrior-monks who constanly presented a menace all over Japan (from their temples of Eastern Mountain's Kiyomizu, Mount Hiei's Enryaku, Nara's Todai, and so on, they always threatened the Emperors, Regents, Chief Ministers, and the like with wars), would be the characteristics of Japanese Buddhism, which marked a separation from Chinese Buddhism.

Emperor Hirohito created an emotional quake all over his realm by denouncing the belief of 1,945 years that his patriarch was the son of the Goddess of the Sun.

Japan has been the greatest economic power in the continent, but it's also the only one in the world which doesn't even have what it takes to kill mosquitoes.

The role of the Emperor of Japan (天皇, tennō) alternated between that of a high-rank cleric with largely symbolic powers and that of an actual imperial ruler, from the dawn of history until the mid-twentieth century.

Under Japan's modern constitution, the emperor is now a largely titular head of state (see Politics of Japan).

The Yamato, one of many warring clans, unified central Japan; Yamato chiefs are the likely ancestors of the imperial family.

1192 Emperor gave Yoritomo the title of shogun (general); the shogun ruled in the name of the emperor.

The country is made up of a group of islands east of North and South Korea, of which the four major islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku, situated between the Sea of Japan (to the west) and the north Pacific (to the east).

The EmperorKotoku left Asuka, until then the traditional capital-city of Japan and moved the capital to "Naniwa Nagara Toyosaki-no-miya", now modern-day Osaka, in order to oppose the huge pressure of the Sui and Tang Empires.

Osaka was restored from the ashes of war into an economic hub and became known as the "Kitchen of Japan" during the Edo era.

The Tekijuku was located near Doshomachi, the center of medical commerce in Japan, and many talented minds gathered in Osaka from all parts of the country to study sciences freely.